Why is the word “fried” used when referencing to being electrocuted?

[emptyblu]

The word fried is used to describe food that’s been cooked in oil for long periods of time. No oils are involved when being electrocuted to death right?

When someone is electrocuted to death if intense enough the heat surfaces onto the skin giving burns and then their bodies pretty much burst into flames a more accurate term would be cooked or burned to death so why the word “fry“ instead? Does it sound more catchier that way?

 

[BingBong]

when you fry an egg, you just put it on the pan, no oil involved there either.

 

[Fetish Roulette]

It's true that the people in the electric chair aren't cooked in oil to be served during their execution, but I think there's a similar element between them of heat warming something to a point that it hadn't been before. I'd also bet that there's a smell of cooked meat coming off of someone who has just been electrocuted, leading to the development of the slang term "fried" to describe death by electrocution.

 

[I (Don't) Have A Gun]

The word fried is used to describe food that’s been cooked in oil for long periods of time.

If I'm mistaken fry does not inherently imply cooking in oil or fat, the actual term is deep fry. Take for example a 'frying pan', which little to no oil is used to fry good.
But as language goes we tend to shorten things case in point 'retarded' is more accurately 'mentally retarded' as retarded by it's older definition has no direct correlation with intelligence, but through the years the world 'retard' has taken on a new definition thanks to it's strong association with diminished mental faculties.

If we look at the etymology of the word fry

fry | Etymology, origin and meaning of fry by etymonline

FRY Meaning: "cook (something) in a shallow pan over a fire," from Old French frire "to fry" (13c.), from Latin… See definitions of fry.

www.etymonline.com

late 13c., "cook (something) in a shallow pan over a fire," from Old French frire "to fry" (13c.), from Latin frigere "to roast or fry," from PIE *bher- "to cook, bake" (source also of Sanskrit bhrjjati "roasts," bharjanah "roasting;" Persian birishtan "to roast;" perhaps also Greek phrygein "to roast, bake"). Intransitive sense is from late 14c. U.S. slang meaning "execute in the electric chair" is U.S. slang from 1929. As a noun, "fried meat," from 1630s. Related: Fried; frying. Frying pan is recorded from mid-14c. (friing panne).

So fry has it's roots in a none oil cooking of food.

The term usage in terms of the electric chair dates back to 1929 while KFC was only incorporated in 1955 and the term deep fry can be traced back to the least the early 20th century (sadly I only have a wikipedia reference for that) thus presumably the strong interchangeability between 'fry' and 'deep fry' did not exist yet when 'fry' was used initially in connection to the electric chair.

 

[Papa Adolfo's Take'n'Bake]

Because, my dear little ESLtard English speakers enjoy re-defining words in their own language per their amusement with little forewarning or logical concensus. (I.e. frying is done at really high temperatures and often done to meat, so regardless of the presence of oil, getting reduced to an extra crispy pile of flesh at high temperatures really quickly draws a parallel to the action of frying something.)

You Autist.

 

[TFT-A9]

You ever smelled the aftermath of an electrocuted Mexican?

Seriously it smells just like barbacoa.

 

[stares at error messages]